hahah i totally thought i saw Glenn, but i thought to myself Chicago was way too far for him to be there so i dismissed it. hahahah Great show
Iron Maiden in Chicago
- Thread starter Azrael LenGraden
- Start date
Jasonic
Doom On!
Awesome!! It is so cool to see people bring their kids.
My girls are 5 and 2, so still a bit too young.
They did come with me to see Herman Rarebell do a drum clinic thing last week and had a blast.
Jasonic
Doom On!
Well, regardless of oversold, there are always a nice chunk of people who somehow weasel their way in there who shouldn't be. I don't think the nose picking 15 year old ushers they employ there really know how to control things.
I'll be at the show tonight wearing my PP X shirt. Don't look for me in the pit, tho. Unlike my former boss, I can't do that the whole night.
Jasonic
Doom On!
nomisofsiman
Member
I had no clue how to do the first to the barrier thing, even though I am a fc member. I do know the paperless thing was a complete mess though as well. I was in the line for gate 1 for quite some time, then like 10 minutes before the gates opened, the people there told me that only gates 3 and 4 did that. Totally unorganized. Amazingly though, I got pretty close up.
Good show overall. When I got to the venue, I saw an unusual sight: a merch booth outside of the venue. I've never seen them do that before. Unfortunately, it was a subset of what they were offering inside, and they were out of the shirt I wanted (The Wicker Man shirt).
So, after wasting time doing that I go in and wait in line. Meanwhile, it has been threatening to rain for most of the day and it finally starts cutting loose as I'm getting under the pavilion. Unfortunately, it wasn't THAT much of protection because it was blowing in. The heavy stuff, tho, was short lived, tho it continued dripping into Maiden's set.
DT was going on as I was coming in and they put together a pretty solid set that covered the span between I&W (Pull Me Under) and the new album (Rite Of Passage). You'd occasionally hear snippets of Iron Maiden tunes. At one time, it looked like they were going to go into The Trooper, until Mike stopped things because he realized that the guitar that John was playing wasn't in standard tuning. Course, after that was all resolved the momentum was lost and they just continued with their set.
During the break I ran into Michelle from Brave. After exchanging brief comments, she had to run off for a pit stop. I did notice that it looks like she's expecting again.
Maiden came on to the sounds of Holst's Mars and started off with The Wicker Man. Now, those who say that fans just identify with the classic stuff didn't hear the crowd sing along to it. They were massively pumped for that song.
The stage was designed to look like a space colony of some sort, with a raised platform around the stage with various places for Bruce to climb up on it. The background had a default of a spacescape, but was often changed to various forms of Eddie depending on the song. Lots of changes.
"El Dorado" still hasn't grown on me, even in a live setting.
Bruce comments at some point that they want the new album to be #1 in America, but that if it happens, the President is likely to have a speech where he talks about GB coming to the US and fucking things up again.
During the song "Iron Maiden", a large Eddie walks out on stage, has a mock fight with Gers and later plays along with Murray on his own guitar. During the encore they had a demon rise up from backstage for "Number Of The Beast".
Janick Gers' antics: I noticed this becomes more pronounced with the older stuff, where it is pretty obvious that he's a third wheel. With the newer material he's much better integrated into the songs. But, during the encore, he was doing all sorts of screwing around, mainly because he had little to do.
I'm glad that I finally got to see them live. They are still a powerful force.
That's another thing. As I was heading in, I saw someone wearing a While Heaven Wept shirt. I complimented the guy on it, but I didn't get a chance to ask him about it.
Dream Theater was great, Maiden was great. I still think they should of thrown a few older tunes into the first part of the set. It dragged on a bit there in the middle.
That venue still sucks. I haven't been there since around 93 and it wasn't good then. The paperless tickets thing was a joke. I will never do that again. The pit was atrocious, could even get in there for Maiden. They way oversold it or let to many people in without pit tickets. Suprisingly the sound was pretty good from where we were for both bands.
Got out of there pretty quick, headed back to my nephews right down the road, packed the car and drove back to Florida. Arrived home around 6pm the next day. Thank God for Red Bull!
That venue still sucks. I haven't been there since around 93 and it wasn't good then. The paperless tickets thing was a joke. I will never do that again. The pit was atrocious, could even get in there for Maiden. They way oversold it or let to many people in without pit tickets. Suprisingly the sound was pretty good from where we were for both bands.
Got out of there pretty quick, headed back to my nephews right down the road, packed the car and drove back to Florida. Arrived home around 6pm the next day. Thank God for Red Bull!
skyrefuge
Member
That's awesome. Had no idea such things existed, but it makes sense. Some LiveNation employee needs to post the whole artist->demographic table somewhere!
So here's the *real* question about attendance: does the count of PPUSA forum members who attended the Iron Maiden show in Chicago outnumber those who will actually be at ProgPower?
Neil
We thought it was an awesome set. We would have loved Run To the Hills and The Trooper but that's ok. Dream Theater was cool too. It was our first time seeing both bands. It was cool talking to the guy wearing the Progpower IX shirt. Four of our friends from Nashville drove up as well. Now I only wish I could've seen The Maiden/Twisted Sister show when they came to Chattanooga on the World Slavery Tour.
Jasonic
Doom On!
Yeah, that's the thing with any long running band.
I have seen Maiden probably 8 times, so I have heard RTTH and the Trooper more times than I care for. Therefore, I loved the current setlist.
If it is your first time ,I can understand wanting to hear those classics.
I only recently have gotten more into Priest in the past few years. I saw them live for the first time on the Metal Masters tour. While some fans probably cringed at hearing Painkiller and Breaking The Law live for the 10th time, I was happy to hear such classic staples live.
You do have to give kudos to Maiden for sticking to their guns and not shying away from their new material. They said since Bruce came back they would not become a full time nostalgia act, and they are right.
Must be doing something right, as they are drawing record numbers these days. I think their live show is so amazing that people come out, even when known that it won't be a night after night greatest hits show.
Probably the main reason why IRON MAIDEN are the greatest heavy metal band of all time, and that won't be changing anytime soon.
nomisofsiman
Member
Interesting that your first Priest concert was Metalmasters. I would've thought you had seen them about as many times as Maiden, so I'm curious. What took you so long to see them and get into their discography.
I won't respond to that last comment as it could turn into a long dragged out convo.
Jasonic
Doom On!
No major reason. Just never clicked with me back in the day as much as other bands did (IE - primarily Maiden, Motorhead, Metallica, Helloween, etc).
I had many of their albums throughout the years, but not all of them.
Really loved Defenders when it came out, but that was when I was first getting into metal and too young to go to shows.
Then came the commercialized Turbo era (not that it was a bad album, but at the time I was starting to get into heavier stuff). By the late 80's, I was exclusively listening to thrash.
Anyhoo - I regained interest in Priest after Halford came back and I blind purchased Angel of Retribution on its release date. I really dug what I heard, and then sought out the rest of the discography.
Once I discovered many gems I wasn't familiar with (IE - Beyond The Realms of Death, Evening Star, Touch of Evil, the list goes on and on!!), I was hooked.
Yeah, wish I was as well versed in their discography as I have been for most of my life as I am with Maiden and Motorhead, but better late than never!
I did see Halford solo on that GODS OF METAL tour in 2003, or whenever that was, but Metal Masters was first time seeing Priest.
Jasonic
Doom On!
I won't respond to that last comment as it could turn into a long dragged out convo.
Fair enough, though when you consider Maiden's longevity as a successful touring and recording band, without ever drastically changing their sound, it is difficult to dispute, IMHO.
nomisofsiman
Member
In terms of a live band, there are few metal bands that can touch them. I'll agree with you there. They've also written some of the best metal songs ever. I guess for me, I've found a lot of their albums, with the exception of two or three to have some major filler and so I don't think they're as consistent as some other bands in my top 5 or 10. Just my opinion.
